Finnish 5G equipment manufacturer Nokia Oyj announced on Monday that it will expand its partnerships with Telefonica Brasil SA and Deutsche Telekom, aiming to capitalize on growth opportunities driven by the global proliferation of artificial intelligence technology.
Following last week's multi-year agreement between Nokia Oyj and Telefónica to provide network solutions for data centers across Spain, these new collaborations further highlight how AI-related technologies are opening up new revenue streams for Nokia Oyj.
Nokia Oyj will extend its network cooperation with Telefonica Brasil SA from initially covering only the state of São Paulo for 5G network modernization and AI service preparation to 14 states across four major regions of Brazil, serving approximately 42% of the country's population.
In a statement obtained in advance by Reuters, Nokia Oyj indicated that this partnership will enable Telefonica Brasil SA to offer AI-driven services to enterprise customers using NVIDIA's AI-RAN platform.
In a separate statement released earlier on Monday, Nokia Oyj and Deutsche Telekom announced an expanded collaboration to accelerate the development of cloud-native, disaggregated, and AI-native radio access network technologies.
Both companies stated that this initiative will establish the foundation for programmable, automated mobile networks that are more streamlined, faster, and better optimized to meet future connectivity demands, as the global AI boom continues to reshape the entire telecommunications industry.
These contracts reflect how global telecom operators are racing to upgrade their 5G networks to support broader AI applications, creating significant market opportunities for equipment suppliers such as Nokia Oyj and Ericsson.
Last year, Nokia Oyj acquired US optical network company Infinera to deepen its involvement in the AI sector, followed by chip giant NVIDIA investing $1 billion to acquire a 2.9% stake in Nokia Oyj.
These new partnerships represent some of the most substantial restructuring moves by Nokia Oyj since it sold its iconic mobile phone business over a decade ago. The company is betting on AI and data center demand to offset the impact of weak investment in the 5G sector and contract losses.